Keith Parsons's Blog, page 64

The Meaning of 'miracle' - Part 3

Swinburne's description of Aquinas' concept of a 'miracle':

Aquinas wrote that a 'miracle' in a wide sense is any event brought about by a rational agent in virtue of powers greater than normal human powers; and so many events brought about by demons or angels would count as miracles. But in a strict sense, he claims, a miracle is that which occurs outside the whole system of created nature; it

"DM" nailed?

"DM," who had been flooding this blog with threats (which occasionally got through the spam filter and other trapping devices), finally seems to have overreached. We'll see if he stops. It would save me some time and general headaches.

Rest is a human need

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Laws of Supernature

On his Dangerous Idea blog Victor Reppert reprints an old exchange between us (we have been going at it for over 35 years now): An Old Exchange between Keith Parsons and myself over theistic explanations This is one that appears in my paper on Hume on Miracles, Frequencies and Prior Probabilities. [Parsons] Science is unavoidably naturalistic, or atheistic if you prefer. Science

Human solutions for human problems

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The Day of Prayin' and Eatin'

Our Governor Goodhair held his fundamentalist pep rally in Houston Saturday. Though only 8000 had registered for the event about 30,000 attended as megachurches—like John Hagee's in San Antonio—bused in the faithful. Except for a few mentions of abortion, the speakers kept it strictly apolitical, scrupulously avoiding the wedge issues that have inflamed the culture wars. Good to know the event

In Defense of the Prayerapalloza

Since I believe in fair and balanced blogging (ahem), and since I have been very critical of Texas Governor Rick Perry's fundamentalist pep rally to be held at Houston's Reliant Stadium tomorrow, I am reprinting here a letter to the editor of The Houston Chronicle defending the event:Satan deceivesI was totally disgusted by the article "Perry day at Reliant: Piety and politics?" (Page A1, Sunday)

The Meaning of 'miracle' - Part 2

Let's start with Swinburne's description of Aquinas' concept of a 'miracle':Aquinas wrote that a 'miracle' in a wide sense is any event brought about by a rational agent in virtue of powers greater than normal human powers; and so many events brought about by demons or angels would count as miracles. But in a strict sense, he claims, a miracle is that which occurs outside the whole system of

Militant atheism, militant Christianity

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The Meaning of 'miracle' - Part 1

I just finished reading Richard Swinburne's chapter "Arguments from History and Miracles", Chapter 12 in The Existence of God (2nd ed., 2004), about the same time Taner Edis did his post "Natural miracles?" (http://secularoutpost.infidels.org/20..., this seems like a good time to revisit the topic of 'miracles'.Back in 2008, I did a series of posts on the definition of